Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Epilogue

Eight years later

Jolie stared at the three-month-old baby in her arms and looked to Brix with a smirk. “Told you so.”

“Hey, I believed you. The Cacciola nose doesn’t lie.” He stroked the dark-haired baby latched to his wife’s chest and pressed a k**s to her forehead.

“Hey Dad,” Pia barged into their office, dragging her six-year-old sister behind her, “you need to keep her out of my stuff. She was in my make-up.”

“You’re too young for makeup.” Brix shot out.

“I’m thirteen, and fourteen next month.”

“I said sixteen.”

“Dad said thirteen,” she threw Malik under the bus.

“He said thirteen when you were six. He didn’t know better.”

“It’s not the point,” she folded her arms over her chest the exact way her two fathers did. “This demon keeps getting into my stuff. Today was my makeup. Yesterday, she took my candy Nonna sent me from my nightstand and ate it all. She ate hers and then took mine.” She tapped her foot and glared at Rose. “Make her stop.”

“Rose, stay out of your sister’s stuff,” Brix shook his head at his girls. “Where’s your Dad?” He questioned her, “I haven’t seen him since he did the school run.”

“He was with Norman in the treehouse a bit ago because he was having a meltdown.” Pia was clearly unhappy they weren’t taking her seriously and threw her hands in the air, “there are too many kids in the house and nobody is listening to me.”

“Norman is only seven and he’s struggling with his new school.”

“You shouldn’t have sent him to the school for gifted kids then,” she had no sympathy. “He’s brilliant but has the emotional regulation of a toad.”

“He’s seven Pia. Give him a break. Not everyone can be as balanced as you,” Jolie finally spoke up. “Rose, leave Pia’s belongings alone. Come,” she held her arm out to her third child and Rose cuddled up and kissed the new baby on the head. “Pia doesn’t appreciate you taking her things. You must ask before taking, okay?”

“Yes mama.” Rose looked up at her with eyes as dark as her fathers.

Jolie traced her finger along the Cacciola nose and then looked back to the baby in her arms. Five kids all had the Cacciola nose. Pia, Norman, Rose, the twins Elio Jr., and Connie, who were running screaming through the foyer at the moment, all had the Cacciola nose. Nobody could deny their father. Dark hair, dark brown eyes, big noses, and even bigger personalities. The only time Rose was quiet was when she was in trouble with Pia. Pia had a hell of a temper where her siblings were concerned. Brix and Malik were frequently hauling the eldest Cacciola child to the basement to punch, kick and fight out her temper. Despite her misgivings, it was clear Norman was likely going to be Pia’s underboss while she ruled their family someday with a flair far more dramatic than her grandfather or father.

“What’s going on in here,” Malik came in with Norman hanging off his back. He kissed Pia’s cheek and then frowned, “go wash the makeup off. You’re too young.”

“Not fair!” she shrieked and started to pull away from him and regardless of one child on his back, he hoisted her up in the air as if she were still five and peppered k****s to her face. “Dad, stop,” she was giggling at his antics and kissed his cheek when he sat her down.

“Look at your beautiful mother. She doesn’t wear make-up. You don’t need it any more than she does,” Malik tried to sweet talk his daughter as he eyeballed his wife.

“She doesn’t have this,” Pia squeezed her nostrils together, “I need to master contouring since mom said I can’t have plastic surgery. I’m going to look like Dad dressed in drag by the time prom comes in a few years.”

Jolie fought her snicker at the comment. Pia’s tongue was quick and sharp from hanging around a house full of soldiers.

“Your father in drag is still a hot sexy motherfucker,” Malik caught the paperweight Brix threw at him with his free hand.

“One Hallowe’en party and I’ll never live it down.” Brix grumbled but his eyes were bright with happiness.

“Pia, please, honey, go wash your face. If you need to wear makeup your mom can teach you the right way but right now, you look like Rose painted your face with her fingerpaints.”

“Dad!” Pia stomped her foot but Malik simply raised an eyebrow. “If I take it off, will you take me to the gun range later?” Pia asked with a sly grin.

“Yes.”

She danced her way out of the office and Rose peeled after her.

“Rose is on her last nerve. She’s so attached to Pia’s a*s she’s like a barnacle on a whale,” Malik dropped Norman onto the sofa. “Norman got an A on his math homework and not an A plus. He thinks we didn’t help him enough.”

“I will spend time with you this evening and we’ll go over it.” Brix promised his son.

“What’s for dinner tonight?” Norman rubbed his stomach, “I’m hungry.”

“Spaghetti and meatballs,” Jolie didn’t look up from the tiny baby in her arms as she unlatched him and switched sides.

“You’re not making it are you? Is Nonna Rose back from Italy yet.”

“She is back but they only got back today,” Brix commented from the edge of his desk where he held an envelope in his hand, tapping it against his palm. “Why don’t you take your bike and ride down and see if she’s coming to make dinner or if we have to suffer mom’s meteorites?”

Jolie shot him a withering glance.

“Take the twins,” Malik called after him earning a g***n of frustration. “They were sliding down the banister. Junior is going to end up with broken testicles from slamming into the bottom of the rail.” He grinned as Brix grabbed his own crotch uncomfortably.

Malik moved to k**s Jolie on the top of the head, “hey beautiful. How’s our gorgeous wife and our newest son doing this evening?”

“We’re doing great,” Jolie stared at the child again and shook her head with a smirk. “Little Will is a hungry little man. He gained a full pound since his last check up.”

“If I could have my mouth on your breasts all day, I would too. Like father, like son.” Malik chuckled at his joke.

“Speaking of,” Brix motioned for him to sit, “Jolie and I had a conversation last week and we wanted to talk to you about it.”

“Jesus, a year ago I finally let you start f*****g without me in the room and now you’re having conversations behind my back too,” he laughed as she smacked at him.

She took the now sleepy baby off her chest and patted his back. Once she got the burp up, she passed the baby to Malik who nestled him against his chest and leaned back on the sofa. Her lips twisted as she looked at their faces. “How the f**k did we miss it for three months, Brix?”

“I don’t know.” He pushed the envelope into Malik’s hand. “Here, we have a surprise for you.”

“What kind of surprise?” Malik adjusted the baby as he kicked his feet onto the coffee table and opened the envelope. “DNA results?”

“Mm,” Brix shook his head. “One of these things is not like the others.” He reached over and ruffled Malik’s hair before kissing his mouth. “Still amazing and incredible but not like the others.”

They watched as confusion marred Malik’s face. “You had Will’s DNA tested?”

“Yes. He’s missing a vital Cacciola trait,” Jolie tapped her nose. “At first, I considered perhaps just for once a kid was going to have my nose but it doesn’t look like mine at all. The next kid better come out looking like me.” She truly loved being pregnant and couldn’t wait for it to happen again. The way her husbands catered to her every whim and demand and worshipped her like a goddess was straight out of a romance novel. They only needed one more to reach seven. Unknown to either of them, she was ready to hit double digits.

“I don’t understand.”

“It seems one of your lazy swimmers beat one of my super swimmers,” Brix chuckled as he went behind the sofa and wrapped his arms over Malik’s shoulders staring lovingly at the little baby. “Your swimmers aren’t completely dead, Malik, only slow. Congratulations Daddy. This one has your DNA, not mine.” He kissed Malik’s cheek in a whisper.

Jolie watched the interaction between the two men with a wide grin and tears edging the corner of her eyes. While not once in the eight years they had been together had any of their children known the difference of who their biological father was, this felt special. All of their kids had two dads who had been present for every birth and every single day thereafter in one way or another. They took their roles as dads seriously and nobody questioned whether Malik was as much a dad as Brix.

Since Malik’s swimmers apparently swam in circles and at a snail’s pace, they had never considered ever conducting DNA on any of the kids, especially since they all had Brix’s damn nose.

“Remember when Brix went to Italy and you and I had three nights all alone?” Jolie made wide eyes at him. “You had no competition, my love.”

“You had him tested?”

“We did.”

“You didn’t tell me?”

“No.” Brix rubbed his shoulders softly, “if it turned out Jolie’s hunch was wrong, then we didn’t want to upset you. He’s our son, no matter what, but she felt you might like to know. Personally, I don’t care one way or the other. He’s my son as much as he is yours, just like the other brats are yours as much as they are mine. We are both responsible for the heathens our wife keeps pushing out. Maybe this one will be more angel than devil.”

Malik chuckled and wiped a tear off his cheek as he stared at the baby in his arms, “so this is my nose then?”

Jolie giggled at his question, “yes, Malik. Your nose. Your eyes too since mine are hazel and his are brown as hell.”

“These are your lips though,” he whispered as he pressed a k**s to the baby’s little mouth. “I loved him so much my heart hurt already but f**k this is killing me. I don’t know if I can breathe.”

“Keep it up and I’ll have to take you to the basement and beat the s**t out of you, crybaby.” Brix teased him.

They all sat quietly as Malik absorbed the information, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

“You still love him the same, Brix?” Malik asked quietly.

“f**k, I love him more, I think,” Brix admitted his own voice shaky as he responded to the question. “He’s part of you Malik. My son has you in him. It makes me love him with the same desperation I think you’re feeling right now.”

“At this rate, I’m taking the pair of you to the basement to beat the s**t out of,” Jolie sniffed wiping her own tears off. When they both raised eyebrows at her she shrugged, “I’m postpartum, you’re both simps.”

“Hey,” Brix got up from where he was squatted and rounded the sofa and growled at her, “not nice, Jolie. We are not simps.”

“Says the two men supposed to be a mob boss and his enforcer sniveling over a baby,” she teased them and gave a yelp as he yanked her to her feet and pressed her to his chest.

“Do you need me to put you over my desk and remind you how manly I am?”

Malik looked up curiously, “hey, did you get clearance from the doctor today? Can we put her over the desk?”

“Hey!” she motioned to the baby in his arms. “He’s only twelve weeks old.”

“Yes, and because he had a ginormous head and you had complications, we had to wait an extra six weeks. Malik’s a*s is good but it’s not near as good as your p***y. We want you babe.” Brix was blunt.

She grimaced as she recalled the most difficult of her deliveries. Even the twins hadn’t put her through what Will had done. “What if I said I didn’t even ask the doctor about it?”

“Lies,” Malik snorted, “you’re hornier than the two of us combined.”

He wasn’t wrong and she grinned at him, “The doctor said I’m fine. He suggested birth control but I’m not keen on taking anything while I breastfeed.”

“What if you get pregnant again?” Malik asked seriously. “I mean I know we said six more babies but the house is getting full.”

She shrugged, “we had unprotected s*x for two years before we got pregnant with him and nothing happened.”

“Mostly because we pulled out and we were too tired to have s*x,” Brix folded his arms. “The twins were exhausting as infants. We will use condoms.”

She made a face, “your mother wants one named after her. She facetimed me Brix, while I was in the waiting room at the doctor’s office this morning and Will was in the background in leather chaps. Assless ones. I’m sure of it.”

Brix scowled, “I never should have told him to take her to Mykonos. She came back waving a flag, denouncing her faith, and standing at every gay parade she can go to with signs offering free mom hugs. It was bad enough I knew she liked the rough stuff and Will spanking her but she made a comment to me the other day about scissoring and confirmed she and Will were bringing women home because she’s feeling experimental in her sixties.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “I should have extended the year longer.”

Jolie snickered as she wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. “She came back after her year was up, educated, smarter and kinder. Her heart is good and she is Pia’s biggest champion. She would die for her of it, I’m sure. She mended her fences, Brix. If it took getting in touch with her inner lesbian then so be it. I like the new Fabiana better than the old one.”

“Ditto.” Malik grunted as he rose from the sofa. “I’m going to go put him down for his nap.”

Jolie squealed when Brix swung her up in his arms, “what are you doing?”

“They say parents should nap when the babies do. We’re going to bed.”

“We have a house full of kids,” she protested weakly. She wanted her husbands too.

“Yes, but it’s why we have my parents, both sets living on this street, your dad and his new wife on this street, Uncle Rizio and Nonna Kendall on this street, Auntie Opal and Trey on this street, Keely and India are one street over and her sister Kelsey just bought the townhouse adjoining theirs with her husband. If one of them can’t step in and watch our minions for the two minutes it’s going to take me after all this time to get off then what is the point of having them all around,” Brix refused to put her down and started carrying her through the house.

As they were headed up the stairs, Norman came in with Elio, Rosa, Fabrizio, and Kendall in tow.

“We’ll start dinner,” Rosa commented as she winked at Brix. “Make sure she gets a bit of rest.”

“She only wants me away from the kitchen.” Jolie feigned hurt feelings as Brix took the stairs two at a time.

As the sound of laughter followed them up the stairs, Jolie snuggled into her husband’s strong arms and watched the perfect a*s of her other husband walking ahead of them, knowing that when Brix set out in chasing his brother’s bride, none of them had ever dreamed they’d have a family like the one they had. A life of love, happiness, and acceptance the world all over envied. It was all simply perfect.

The End.